


Tragic love

by Fireflycat



Category: A Hat in Time (Video Game)
Genre: Abusive Relationships, Angst and Tragedy, Horror, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Imprisonment, One Shot, Other, The prince's name is Lukas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-30
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-16 19:00:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29087262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fireflycat/pseuds/Fireflycat
Summary: "You love her."
Relationships: The Prince & Queen Vanessa (A Hat in Time)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14





	Tragic love

**Author's Note:**

> I've got AHIT brain riot at the moment

"You love her."

The statement came out of the blue, without him being warned by a single person or thing about it. Lukas almost dropped the bouquet that he had been carrying in shock. As her eyes bore into his soul, her glare as cold and threatening as ice, he struggled to maintain his composure.

"What?" He asked.

The queen, too close for comfort, stepped closer to him, stopping just a few feet before him. Her loving blue eyes did not look at him with love and affection, as they used to do, but with hatred and betrayal. Her yellow hair was a huge mess, with some of her hair strands pulled out, slowly losing their bright color. Lukas could spot the dark circles under her eyes upon closer examination.

"You love her," Vanessa repeated in an accusing voice, glaring daggers at the man she loved. Lukas opened his mouth to respond, but before he even had the chance, she continued, cutting him off. ”You love her more than me, don’t you?”

Lukas blinked, confusion washing over him. He understood she was talking about the florist from who he had brought the flowers from, but didn’t understand why she thought he was cheating on her. The thought made his spine trickle down with fear.

He knew that Vanessa could, for lack of a better term, be really... sensitive. He has always done his best to please her as much as he can, but she always felt like something was missing, no matter what he did. That he isn’t doing good enough.

”No,” Lukas shook his head. ”No, of course not. Why would you-”

"I saw you!" Vanessa, tossing her hands in the air, persisted. She cut herself off as soon as the words came, letting out another strangled cry, her body wracked with sobs. "You and that-that woman were—" When he tried to reach out to place a hand on her back, she swatted it away instinctively and pointed an accusing finger at him. ”Why would you do this to me…?! Wasn’t our love enough?” 

He gazed at her quietly for what seemed like forever, before dropping the flowers down on the clean, marble floor with a tired sigh. She refused to believe him, no matter how much he tried to reason with her. 

And yet, he was still trying to make her listen. "You’ll always be my queen, Vanessa.” He said.

Vanessa looked at him, her expression hard to read, half of her face obscured with hair.  
It grew to a more flaxen color from its roots.

In his stomach, Lukas felt something twist. Something was different about her, only becoming more evident by the minute. He didn't know if it was caused by the tension and discomfort she was experiencing or some sort of magic spell. But whatever it was, it was doing something to her.

Suddenly, the temperature drops, with the room getting colder by the minute. He looks around in order to locate the source but sees nothing out of the ordinary. That is until Vanessa looks back and sees ice emerging from under her feet. 

He barely had time to escape before massive spikes were fired from the ground, almost close enough to impale him on the spot.

The hair on the back of his neck stood up, frozen in all this horror. He looked at the huge ice spike, then swiftly shifted his attention back to Vanessa, standing in the center of all of them. Her body felt deformed. Her body was deforming. Changing.

Her once blond hair, as vivid as the morning light, was now a long, messy ashen black. The exquisite colors of her clothes have been lost, going from green and yellow to gray and black. She turned to face him, and now her pretty blue eyes were dangerously bright red. 

But what frightened him the most was that this wasn't the same princess he once fell in love with.

This was all her bitter anger and love taking over to create a monster of her feelings and appearance.

And Lukas was afraid of it. Of her. 

Va-" His voice was shaking." "Vanessa?”

Two guards from the corridor emerged before he had the opportunity to run away. They lunged and grabbed both of his arms in an iron grasp that would never be lost, no matter how hard he tried to fight them. 

"Vanessa! Vanessa! "Again, he called her name. She looked at him, but still, she said nothing. Instead, she pointed to something out of reach and made a dismissive hand gesture towards the guards, who nodded, dragging him out of the room.

"VANESSA!" He screamed, this time more desperate as he was fighting against their grasp. the guards didn't even flinch. Where were they taking him? Why- Why wasn’t she doing anything? Was he going to die? Were they going to execute him?

Once the door closed, Vanessa turned her back to him, leaving her alone in the frozen room, as the guards carried him through the decorated halls with ancient portraits of former kings and queens hanging everywhere. 

Lukas wondered if this was what they could have been. A royal couple, looking as serious as possible for the picture and laughing at each other after making such stern expressions instead of whatever was going to happen to him now.

He was watching the guards pull him from a fancy place to a damp, filthy basement. At the sight of them approaching the silver chains hanging from the side of the wall, his blood froze.

”No,” He said, his voice was shrill with terror. ”NononoNONO!” His voice became louder, almost shouting for those who were lucky enough to hear him. Nobody did. 

"Please," he cried to the guards, one of whom held him still, the other preparing to place chains on each arm. "Don't do this!"

The guards did not answer him, still as emotionless and quiet as ever as they were when they tied him up, ignoring the way he had begun to trash and scream for mercy. He should have known that they wouldn't be helping him. No one was going to help him.

They're all listening to Vanessa now.

"Vanessa..." This time he didn't scream for her. His voice was too tired to make another cry of help come out. Her name ended with a whisper, a quiet tone full of desperation and despair.

"Don't do this..." he knew she couldn't hear him, but nonetheless he found himself muttering the words to keep himself from crying. The rusty chains stood strong, impossible to get rid of unless he was willing to cut both of his hands off... Not that he had anything to cut them off with in the first place.

”Please…” He whispered, feeling the tears threatening to escape him.

”My prince?”

There was a familiar voice ringing throughout the room. At that moment, Lukas shot open his eyes, snapping his head to see her standing in the doorway, taking the final step down the stairway. His eyes widened. Everything about her except for her voice was beyond recognition.

The woman, Vanessa, approached him slowly, leaving behind every step she had taken, a trail of ice. As she touched his cheek to brush away his tears, Lukas forced himself not to flinch, her hand cold to the touch. He swore that he saw the smallest hint of a smile pull on her mouth. 

"How do you feel...?”

What do you think, he almost says but bites his tongue. ”Vanessa,” He says instead, his voice almost pleading. ”What- why are you doing this?” 

Taken back by the question, Vanessa blinks. She tightens her grip on her cheek and Lukas could feel frost starting to form on his skin. "Isn't it obvious?" She asked, tilting the side of her head with a crack that made him wince. "We can be together forever this way."

With fear, Lukas's eyes widened. She couldn't be serious, could she? Yet her voice sounded so sure, so sincere as if there was nothing wrong with the situation in front of her.

"No..." The word slipped out on its own, and Vanessa took a step back from him, much to his surprise. Through the darkened appearance, her glowing eyes gazed at him, narrowing by a fraction.

”No?” She asked, a clear smile forming on her face now. ”No,” She repeated. ”No, No, No nonononono…”

In his chest, Lukas felt his heart pound, blocking out any other noises. This couldn’t be her. No, this couldn’t be the Vanessa she knew. It… it couldn’t be her… she wouldn’t…

A scream tore him out of his mind to see her scratching around the spot, tossing an empty barrel in fury at the wall, watching it shatter with a single blow. Lukas swallowed uneasily. If he wasn't careful enough, he might have ended up like that barrel. It was one thing to chain him up, but psychically harming him was another.

Vanessa turned again to look at him. Then, she started to walk up the stairs slowly.

”Wait!” He called after her, but she didn’t listen nor stop in her tracks.

”Vanessa, wait!” He shouted again, louder this time. ”Please! I’m sorry! Don’t, don’t do this to me!”

In the distance, the footsteps slowly vanished and any hope Luka had of freedom disappeared with them.  
It- she was serious about this.

Tears started to stream down his face and to the floor. He could no longer hold them back. 

With nothing left to do, he waited. 

He was waiting to be saved by someone. He was waiting to change Vanessa's mind and free him.

He waited for it all to end.

All while the soles of his feet darkened steadily to a dark purple hue.


End file.
